YouTube video sermon
1 Peter 2:13-17
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to 1 Peter 2. Isn’t it neat how God works things out? If you’ve been here for the passed few weeks, then you know that we’ve been going (verse-by-verse) through Peter’s letter to the church that’s scattered across Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And wouldn’t you know, on the Sunday before the 4th of July, that God providentially put before us a text of Scripture that deals with our relationship with the government.
Now, I know that some of you will be happy that I’m preaching from this text. After all, considering all that’s happened in recent days with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, their decision to uphold Coach Joseph Kennedy’s right to pray after high school football games, the January 6 hearings, recent bipartisan gun legislation, and so much more, some of you are thinking, “It’s about time somebody preaches about the government.” Others of you are rolling your eyes and tensing up, thinking, “Here we go again, another preacher getting political instead of sticking to the gospel. This is why I don’t like church.”
All I can say is this; when you preach like I preach (typically verse-by-verse through entire books of the Bible), then it’s inevitable that you’re going to have to address these topics at some point because the biblical authors do. And it just so happens that God put it on my plate this morning. So, I’m left with a choice: skip it because it’s too touchy or stare it in the face and preach it with much fear and trembling. I’ve chosen the latter. So, let’s read these verses:
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
“Living God, help us to hear Your holy Word in such a manner that we may truly understand it; that in our understanding we may believe, and in our believing we may follow You in all faithfulness and obedience, seeking Your honor and glory in all that we do; through Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Huldrych Zwingli, slightly modified)
Let me begin, if I may, by giving us just a little bit of historical background, because it will help to put things into perspective. The year was 44 A.D., the city was Rome, and the emperor was Claudius. He’d been married three times, and now he’s going to be married a fourth time to his niece, Agrippina the Younger. She was quite a character. That’s all I can say.
When she entered her marriage to Claudius she had a son by the name of Lucius Domitius, and she convinced Claudius to make him the next emperor. Now, Claudius already had a son, by the name of Britannicus, who was supposed to be the next emperor, but he mysteriously died at the age of 14. So, upon the death of Britannicus and because Lucius wasn’t Claudius’s son by birth, Claudius renamed his adoptive son (anybody?) – Nero.
At 17 years of age, Nero and his mother (Agrippina) decided they would poison Claudius, and they did. Now, Claudius should’ve taken notice of the fact that Agrippina, likewise, had been married three times before and poisoned all three of those husbands, but he was seduced and smitten by Agrippina. And so, at the tender age of 17, Nero becomes the emperor of Rome. And because of his demented and demonic mind, he turns against his mother when he reaches 21.
He tries to poison his mother three different times, but he forgets that she’s an expert in poison. So, none of that ever works. He has a canopy bed built for her that’s designed in such a way as to collapse when she gets into it and kill her, but she’s too quick and rolls out of bed before it collapsed. Later, he has a boat built for her and it’s rigged to spring a leak and sink. He sends her out on some royal outing in this boat, and sure enough it sinks but he never figured that she could swim. So, she swims back to shore. He keeps on trying to kill his mother, but nothing seems to work. So, finally, he decides that he’ll stab and beat her to death, and he does.
In 64 A.D. the city of Rome catches on fire and burns. You’ve all heard the various arguments that Nero started the fire in order to give a real-life backdrop to his own theatrical reading of the story The Sack of Troy, and also to clear out a place to build a golden palace for himself. In order to shift the blame, Nero chooses this new religious group of people called Christians (literally, “little Christs”). Listen to what Tacitus writes following the burning of Rome:
Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.
Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty, that they were being destroyed. (Tac. Ann. 15.44)
Eventually, Rome became fed up with Nero and planned to have him executed, but before they could do that, he took his own life.
Now, I tell you all of that to give you context. Yes. But here’s the mind-boggling truth; it’s in the midst of this horrible backdrop that Peter says what he says in these verses: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or as to governors sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.” What?! Peter, you’ve got to be out of your ever-loving mind. To which Peter says, “No, the most important thing that we (Christians) need to understand in the middle of our social and political drama is that we’re called to live for God.”
I love that phrase “live to God.” It’s not mine. It’s Paul’s. He said in Galatians 2:19, “Through the law I died to the law that I might live to God.” The aim of life – including our social and political life – is to live to God. To live with God in view. To live under His authority. To live on Him like we live on air and food and water. To live for His good reputation. So, the most important thing these five verses do is put our social and political lives into proper relation to God.
Let me simply take each verse and point to this “God-focused living” on these social/political matters. Each verse mentions God explicitly except one (v. 14) and that one implies God’s work and purpose.
For the Lord’s Sake
We start with verse 13, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors…”
The key phrase in this verse is “for the Lord’s sake.” If you miss that, you miss the most important thing. There’s this kind of allegiance to human institutions that’s not for the Lord’s sake, and that’s not what Peter is interested in. It might look like Christian submission on the outside, but it’s radically different.
Christians don’t submit to human institutions simply because they feel like it, or because they have compliant personalities or because the institutions have coercive powers. We don’t look at ourselves to see what we feel like doing, nor do we look at the institution (like government) to see if it there are consequences for not submitting. We look to God. We consult God about the institution. And we submit for His sake.
Now, the reason that Peter brings this up here is because of what he just finished talking about in verses 9-12. In verse 9 he said that Christians are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people of God’s own possession.” In verse 10 he said that we are “the people of God.” In verse 11 he said that we are therefore “aliens and strangers” among the social and political institutions of this world.
And it begs the question: if we’re a separate “holy nation,” and if we’re “God’s people,” and if we’re “aliens and strangers,” then perhaps we should withdraw into our own Christian ghettos and communities and enclaves and have nothing to do with the powers and institutions of this world. And Peter’s answer is: “NO!”
While we’re in this world, we’re citizens (as it were) of two orders, two systems. This world with its necessary institutions, and the order of the kingdom of God with its necessary values. This is not because the two orders have equal authority, but because God is the ruler and owner of both, and when you belong first to Him and His kingdom, you can be sent by Him, for His sake, for His purposes, and for His glory into the kingdom of this world.
In this way, our submission becomes an act of praise, and act of worship, a tribute (if you will) to God’s authority over the institutions of the world. You look a president, or a governor, or a congressman, or a law enforcement officer in the eye and say, “I submit to you. I honor you – but not for your sake. I honor you for God’s sake. I honor you because God owns you and rules over you and has sovereignly raised you up for a limited season and given you the leadership that you have. For God’s sake and for His glory and because of His rightful authority over you, I honor you.”
So, verse 13 takes all earthly submission and puts it under the higher, more supreme submission of God when it says, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake…” We keep the speed limit for God’s sake, not because we might get a ticket. And all our driving becomes an act of worship.
God’s Design for Government
Next, is verse 14, “[submit to emperors] or governors sent by [the emperor] to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” This is the one verse that doesn’t mention God explicitly. Nevertheless, He’s here.
When Peter tells us that the purpose of kings and governors is to punish evil and praise good, he’s giving us God’s purpose for government. We know this from Romans 13:4 where Paul says, that civil authority “is a minister of God to you for good . . . [and] it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.”
So, what verse 14 expresses is not what Nero and his governmental lackies sought to do. But rather, what God designed government to do. Think about it. Nero, beheaded Paul and crucified Peter upside down. But the proper aim of government is to dam up the river of evil that flows from the heart of man so that it doesn’t flood the world with anarchy (e.g. Vladmir Putin).
Governments do not save; they are to maintain external order in a world seething with evil so the saving message of the gospel can run and triumph on its own power. That’s why Paul urged us in 1 Timothy 2:1–4 “to pray for kings and those in authority,” because God desires that the gospel not be hindered by upheaval, so that more people can be saved.
The Will of God
Next, is verse 15, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.”
We’re supposed to get our bearings in a pagan culture from the will of God (1 Peter 4:2). Because we’re aliens and strangers, we consult the King of kings and the Lord of lords about how to live. God tells us what’s right and what’s wrong not in the American constitution, but in the ultimate constitution – the Bible.
God’s aim for us – as outlined in the Bible – is that we live out such a joyful, sacrificial, humble, fearless life of goodness to others that their slander of Christianity will finally be silenced. And we get this strategy, and the strength and guidance to live it, from the will of God.
Bondslaves of God
Next, is verse 16, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.”
Some of you aren’t going to like what I say, but we aren’t Americans first and Christians second. We belong to God, not to America. We’re slaves of God, not man (1 Corinthians 7:22–23). We don’t submit to human institutions, whether that’s the government or employment or even the church, as slaves, but as God’s free people. We submit in freedom for God’s sake. Not in bondage for the president’s sake or the boss’s sake or even the preacher’s sake, but only for God’s sake.
Our whole disposition of freedom and joy and fearlessness and radical otherness from this world is rooted in our belonging to God – which in one sense is slavery (because His authority over us is absolute) but in another sense is glorious freedom (because He changes our hearts so that we love doing what He gives us to do).
As the great Reformer, Martin Luther, said in his wonderful little treatise called The Freedom of a Christian, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” The key to that paradox is God. We’re freed by God from slavery to all human institutions; and sent by God freely and submissively into those very same institutions – for His sake!
The Progression of Honor
Finally, is verse 17 – four imperatives, four short directives, “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
There’s a progression here, I think. First, give to all human beings (good and bad) a basic respect and honor. The way you respect a scoundrel like Judas and the way you respect a saint like John will be different. Right? But there’s a way to give respect. The respect that you show to a convicted rapist and a murderer is different from someone who is exonerated and found innocent. The one is sentenced to prison and the other is set free. But in that entire process there’s an honor. You don’t take them out behind the courtroom and shoot them dead like you would a dog that mauled somebody on the sidewalk. There’s a way to respect people even in the midst of our legal system, and we’re to look for it and find it.
Second, beyond the common respect and honor that we should have for everyone, there’s a special love that is to be given to “the brotherhood,” that is, to fellow Christians. There’s affection. There are tears. There’s endearment.
Third, there’s a special fear appropriate to God and no one else. We don’t fear people in the world. We don’t fear people in the church. We fear God. Matthew 10:28 says, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We don’t submit to institutions out of fear. We don’t come to church out of fear. But we stand in awe of a living holy God, and we tremble before Him and find our way into the shadow of His cross, where alone our trembling can be relieved of its torment and become worshipful. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God.
Then, back to the basic honor, “Honor the emperor.” Why end it this way? Why not end with “Fear God”? Well, perhaps Peter wanted to remind his audience that Nero was part of the “Honor everyone.” Honor is the same Greek word here at the end as it is at the beginning. Perhaps Peter didn’t want them to forget that Nero was a man. Nero was a human. Nero was a person to receive respect. My Republican friends won’t like this, but Joe Biden is someone to be honored. My Democratic friends won’t like this, but assuming we’re still alive in 2024 and a Republican is elected, then he/she is someone to be honored too.
So, how do we land this plane? How do we conclude this morning? What’s the primary application? Well, I think it’s fairly clear that the state of our nation is in disarray, today. Yes, it’s the weekend of the 4th, and yes, we’re momentarily remembering and celebrating her wonderful freedoms, but Christians on both sides of the aisles and everywhere in between need to be reminded that we’re first and foremost children of God – and secondarily citizens of America. In Him, we’re free, but we don’t use that freedom as a cover-up for evil. We submit to, and pray for, and honor our leaders for the Lord’s sake.